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Unless you've been living under a rock, you must have heard of the furore about the Jawaharlal Nehru University ruckus being played out...

2/16/2016

Unless you've been living under a rock, you must have heard of the furore about the Jawaharlal Nehru University ruckus being played out at the heart of Delhi. The upheaval over the purportedly "anti-national" comments being made at the JNU campus is to me, justified. It is really tragic that today's so-called students (really?) have resorted to eulogizing blacklisted terrorists for political purposes. As pointed out by a reputable debate show, politicians have objectified this incident as a latch for them to lambaste the ruling government; and an opportunity to join the "BJP doesn't own patriotism" bandwagon. Mind you, these are all for petty short-term gains: no one is righteous enough to call the spade a spade.

The JNU Campus, Mehrauli, New Delhi

It is, no doubt, disheartening to see the young guns of the nations fire up such controversial salvos every now and then. However, what is irritating is the fact that the opposition have overwhelmingly come out in unabashed support of the students, to give "support to the voices of dissent". Take this for a cause. These students are availing off benefits unavailable to millions of hopefuls. These students are living on subsidized education rates, which incidentally, comes from the taxpayer's money. And does the common man pay the tax to manufacture such shallow-minded, half-opined people who sympathize with banned terror outlets? It would be a joke for me to answer this.

The point is, the Congress and the Left should put an immediate reality check on their strategy, as far as this case is concerned. Travelling to murkier places may backfire. The fantastic irony lies in one of the core defence statements of the accused: the freedom of speech. As far as I know, the freedom guaranteed under Article 19(2) is not without clauses and riders. It is in no sense, absolute. A young gentleman by the name of Umar Khalid, who was one of the strongman of the JNU protests, has had alleged connections with the Jaish-e-Mohammed. Yes, you read that right. JeM was the same terror group that had facilitated the Pathankot attacks last month. If you remember the Indian Airlines-814 hijacking case, it's the same group, for the record. Get the drift?

Some have claimed this is as a just another show of political drama. With the Punjab Assembly elections within a stone's throw, the parties would definitely like to add a blot on the BJP's repute. However, to disregard this event of colossal ramifications as a political hatchet would be a travesty of common sense. I'd be more than happy to cakewalk you over the sequence of events. The first notes of unrest were about the "unwise" decision of the honb'le Supreme Court to execute Afzal Guru, convicted of attacking the Indian Parliament in 2002. It is fine to express your opinion against a particular judgement. But to rally against the decision of the apex court in open public and demean the President of the Indian Republic, in the name of "freedom" is just unacceptable. Next, the ship steered to something a hundred and eighty degrees away from the original point: the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar, the leader of the JNU Student's wing. Ultimately, as satire can claim it, they state that they were right in condemning the Indian judicial structure. They even distributed pamphlets denouncing the "judicial killing of Afzal Guru". It seems rational that there should have been a suo motu case for the Contempt of the Court as well.

Such revolutionary protests by student wings is downright condemnable in the strictest of terms. Immediate legislation should be made to clip the wings of any such political student's union. The need of the hour is for all parties to unite and deplore such students who, instead of doing their work, have sit down to remap the political ideology of Indian parties. There is a lot of hue and cry when the Jadavpur VCs (and of course, its Presidency counterpart) get gheraoed for hours. This episode is way too hot to handle. The Government has done the right thing to slap sedition charges on these political opportunists claiming to be students. This is not about the ABVP's ideology or the RSS's dicta: Would you dare put such "voices of dissent" over India's pride?

I am a liberal and I support freedom of speech in all possible ways. At the same time, I know I should be responsible to use this freedom in the way it is meant to be. To cry foul in the name of freedom and rights, to berate the government and the Indian Judiciary, to promote separatist dogmas and eventually fabricate communal clashes is never a part of the "freedom of speech and expression" the JNU protesters claim. If sedition is not "Bharat ki baarbadi tar jang rahegi jari" (We will continue to strive till India is destroyed), I do not know what sedition is.